New Year's (Photography) Resolutions

Well, not really. Just a load of things I'd like to achieve in 2012, photographically.

I'm not really into resolutions - they are proven to fail - but apparently they do focus the mind a little bit more and make you more likely to achieve personal goals.

So I've decided to set myself some photographic goals for 2012:

1.) Take a picture of our son, Samuel, every day.

- I started this the day he was born and have posted a photo from every day of his life on Flickr (you'll need to be one of my Friends of Family members to see the photos from this set).  I intend to keep it going until 3rd December 2012 at the very least.

Samuel, taken from the set, SGR on Flickr (permission required to view pics of Samuel)

2.) Take more film

- Last year, for some reason, I decided to invest in medium format and bought a Mamiya 645 Pro TL on eBay.  It's a great piece of kit, but I've put one film through it and that's it (mainly because it's pretty expensive to develop medium format film).  I also bought a Canon EOS 1V-HS, their final 'analog' SLR, but again, I only used it for one film and the results were superb.  I want to use the cameras a bit more, even though with a child, it's simpler to use a digital camera and delete all the blurry ones.  I like a challenge...

- A friend of mine (Rumbers!) asked me why I wanted to buy film cameras when I had a state-of-the-art digital camera.  It's a good question.  The answer is: because I can.

3.) Carry on writing this blog

- Sure, I get about 6 people reading this blog each time I post something new, but it keeps my writing skills fresh.  Writing is part of what I do for a living and I enjoy it.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much.

4.) Learn more about Photoshop/Lightroom

- Photography is one (very important) part of producing a picture; processing the photos is another part, just as darkroom techniques once were.  I use the same techniques in Photoshop/Lightroom most of the time - I'd like to do something more snazzy.

5.) Print more photos

- My Mum likes looking at photos on a computer, but LOVES holding them in her hand and actually seeing them printed out.  So do I.  Whether it's in a photobook or on individually printed photographs, I want to make sure I print more often.

So - any photography resolutions from you six??

THE Hairpin

Hairpin II, originally uploaded by David Romanis.


One of our last holidays before the arrival of our son or daughter was to Cannes. This included an evening trip to Monaco.

There aren't many famous roads in the world, but given that the most famous Grand Prix happens on these streets, this hairpin has its own unique place in history: it's the slowest corner in F1 and requires the teams to have a special steering rack so the cars can get round without having to whack it in reverse and ... oh yeh, that's right, they don't have a reverse gear. Honestly - all that money for a Formula 1 car and it can't go backwards? Rubbish.

The one downside to the evening trip was that by the time we arrived in Monaco, it was already dark (Lou and I went for dinner on the road between Casino and Mirabeau Haute as it was about 8.30pm) so we could only take pictures at about 10.30pm. The only available light was coming from the streetlights.

There's only one thing for it: open the aperture as wide as it'll go and whack the ISO up. Not too far, mind - I haven't got a Nikon, you know...

Yep, high ISO and a steady(ish) hand, a bit of creative tilt and this was the result. I deliberately caught the guys crossing the road to get a bit of context and something other than a kerb, then shot wide open at about 1/15th of a second. This is the result.

I only shot a couple, but this was the best one - I've done very little with it apart from a little bit of a push of contrast.

Colour Space exporting

It's hardly a sexy subject - and nothing to do with actual photography - but it's an important part of showcasing photography: which colour space should I use when exporting photos from Lightroom?

Ladybird II, originally uploaded by David Romanis.

Annoyingly, I've discovered that I've been using the 'wrong' colour space (or "color space" as Lightroom calls it) - AdobeRGB strips the photo of some of its vibrance and saturation and the picture becomes a little duller.

I performed a simple experiment earlier on, exporting the original RAW file from Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software to create a JPG, dropping it into Lightroom, then after a few tweaks, exporting using different colour spaces.

In order of closeness to the original shot, from closest to furthest away, sRGB was best, then AdobeRGB, the ProPhoto RGB.

sRGB is pretty much the same as the shot I opened in DPP; the AdobeRGB shot desaturates slightly; the ProPhoto RGB export might as well be black and white. Almost.

So, note to self: export from Lightroom using sRGB. Glad I found that out after having only exported 16,000 pictures...

Time flies, but not for La Sagrada Família

I really can't believe (nor apologise enough) for getting to May without having posted anything in 2011. How time has flown by. I can't really tell you where the time has gone and don't know what I've been up to, but a quick review of my photo folders tells me that there has been some photography going on, at least.

During the Bank Holiday Limbo week, Lou and I went to Barcelona, a city neither of us had visited before except for on business (Lou went there for a conference last year).

With most cities Lou and I visit, we tend to take more than a modicum of photos, but this place, La Sagrada Família, got a large chunk of our snapping. You only need to walk around the cathedral to see the detail and appreciate the work which has already gone into creating it.

And it's not finished. Not even close.

The two main facades viewable at the moment are the Nativity and Passion facades. The main entrance is still hidden behind tarpaulin sheets and scaffolding. The cathedral itself won't be complete until 2040. That's 29 years away. I'll be 62. That's scary.

However, it also depends on the number of visitors to the cathedral who pay around €15 to get in and wander around - it could be sooner or it could be later.

All I know is that when it's finished, it will be an incredible sight to behold.

Inside, as the picture above shows, it is unlike any other cathedral I've ever visited. The columns split out at the top and bottom to make them look like trunks of trees, the windows in some areas represent honeycombs and there are many tips of the cap to nature in Gaudí's design.

As a photographer, I often walk into these places thinking "hmmmm, ISO 400 or 800?", but I just tilted my head backwards and gawped at the majesty of the place.

I guess today's photography thought from me is to look around before pointing the camera. Take in the craftsmanship, enormity, detail and splendour of one of Europe's most amazing works of art.

Also, try not to pose in front of the altar and have your picture taken doing a peace sign. Tacky tourists.

[Click here for more pictures from Barcelona on Flickr]

Ornithologist required

When we told people that we were heading to Borneo, a few of them asked what the weather would be like.  Being that we were in a rainforest, it should've come as no surprise - either to them or us - that it would rain.  Heavily.

"Balance" as seen in my Flickr Photostream.

During an apocalyptic-like rainstorm on Day 3 of our holiday, we sat in the Rainforest Lodge and watched it lash down outside.  Of course, we were fortunate to have shelter - this fella was not so lucky, but for some reason, he decided to balance himself on the (very flimsy) branch of a tree about 100 feet from the Lodge.  The 24-105mm wasn't quite long enough, so I switched to the Bigma and started shooting away.  This is the result.

If anyone knows what kind of bird this is, I'd be interested in finding out!


Technical shooting info...

Being in the lodge meant that I had a few ways of taming the Bigma, i.e. keeping it steady.  At 500mm and as wide open as it goes (f/6.3), I needed to set the camera's ISO quite high to maintain a fast enough shutter speed, in this case, a 1/1250th on ISO 1600.  The bird didn't stick around for too long, but I managed to shoot off half a dozen or so decent shots.

I rested my left foot on a chair and balanced the Bigma on my knee as a sort of makeshift monopod, then carefully squeezed the trigger for each shot.  Manual focus was vital, of course, as autofocus was doing its best to try and focus on the rain falling down around the subject and not the subject itself.

The rest of Day 3's photos are here.